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Thanks for the responses. I tend to agree, but my concern is the "permanent" nature of a 301. I assume they will re-crawl the old URLs and replace the previous redirects with the new ones eventually.

Before hiring me to do SEO, a client re-launched their site and did not 301 the old URLs to the new. Only the home page URL stayed the same.

For a month after the re-launch, the old URLs returned a 404. For the next month, all 404 pages (basically any non-existent URL) were 301'd to the home page. Finally, 2 months after launching, they properly 301'd the old URLs to the new.

Now, the new URLs are not ranking well. I assume it's too late to realize any benefit from the 301's, just checking to see if anybody has any insight into how long Google keeps trying to crawl old/404/improperly 301'd URLs.

Thanks!

Mike,

I agree with Alan that it is a serious issue that warrants some attention and planning. Worst case scenario, the expired pages return a 404 and you're missing a big opportunity to boost the rest of the site. Best case scenario, you 301 or link to category or cross-promotional pages to pass PR and visitors to the next most relevant page/category.

The 301 would accomplish this, but like Alan said you run the risk of inadvertently creating redirect loops if there's no long-term planning for potentially thousands of pages and/or categories.

I've had several large (100k+ pages) clients with similar issues, and despite all the usual "each case is different" disclaimer, I've seen a lot of success with keeping the out of stock items' URLs active, but replacing the content with a message "We're sorry, but this item is out of stock. Might we interest you in product X or content Y?" type of cross-promotion. Depending on your e-commerce platform's ability to dynamically generate different merchandising options, it may be difficult or easy.

You can choose whether or not to keep these pages in your navigation structure if you like, although I'd recommend removing them from your internal search results pages.

That's just my experience, but there's a great discussion thread on this Whiteboard Friday post (which I refer people to all the time): http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-expired-content

Good question, something I know a little bit about. In addition to the standard local business sites, there are lots of ways to share health-related content on topically relevant sites.

My wife's dental practice website is my fun little SEO side project. We have had great success building links by writing guest posts and columns for local parenting sites (she's a pediatric dentist). There are a lot of myths and old wives' tales about teeth and people LOVE to hear the truth. Sometimes the myths are true! This type of content marketing has even gotten her appearances on the local TV news as an expert on a recent issue with city water supplies.

We took the top "10 myths about children's teeth" and created a downloadable PDF (visible in the footer) and it is a great confidence builder for parents who are unsure about what to expect. It has attracted a few links from other dental and health-related websites.

Finally, she blogs regularly with a mix of community events (they sponsor a lot of kid-friendly and family events around town) and health-related info for parents and kids.

It's all free and has done wonders for their visibility.

Good question, something I know a little bit about. In addition to the standard local business sites, there are lots of ways to share health-related content on topically relevant sites.

My wife's dental practice website is my fun little SEO side project. We have had great success building links by writing guest posts and columns for local parenting sites (she's a pediatric dentist). There are a lot of myths and old wives' tales about teeth and people LOVE to hear the truth. Sometimes the myths are true! This type of content marketing has even gotten her appearances on the local TV news as an expert on a recent issue with city water supplies.

We took the top "10 myths about children's teeth" and created a downloadable PDF (visible in the footer) and it is a great confidence builder for parents who are unsure about what to expect. It has attracted a few links from other dental and health-related websites.

Finally, she blogs regularly with a mix of community events (they sponsor a lot of kid-friendly and family events around town) and health-related info for parents and kids.

It's all free and has done wonders for their visibility.